Walking Back to Happiness

...woopah, oh yeah yeah. As apparently the lyrics of said song by Helen Shapiro go. So there.

Yesterday I spent in three long meetings. I don't even work, how do I get so busy? Anyway, I had toast for breakfast as we had run out of milk. Meeting one was a quick, refreshment-free trot through our remodel status with the builders and architect (for more on which see http://remodelbox.blogspot.co). Then I went up to San Francisco for a business meeting with a nonprofit I'm involved with. It was supposed to be a lunch meeting. In typical SF fashion, we went to a salad bar and chose expensive lettuce: A carb free lunch with a tiny piece of strip steak to decorate the top. Really, can someone tell me what the point is of lettuce?

I then drove from San Francisco to San Jose in the rain. It took two and a half hours. By the time I arrived, I had consumed the emergency plain chocolate from my glove compartment (which really belongs to Deep Thought because it has little sugar in it). In San Jose, I spent three hours sifting applications for an academic enrichment program that I also support. It was interesting, but also supported by the occasional chocolate, as spread on the table by the staff.

Got home just before 9pm, starving. Ate a cheese quesadilla, which is generally calorific, but we happen to have high fibre/low carb tortillas at the moment, so it wasn't so bad. Trouble is, a little quesadilla isn't very filling (though it has a nice comforting melted cheese taste/texture which feels just right on a rainy evening), so I ended up snacking on some (baked) potato chips.

So not the most virtuous of days.

In contrast, today I just got back from my six mile walk, having had only breakfast Weetabix; and I'm hoping to persuade Deep Thought to join me at a dance class this evening.

Positive Vibes

I'm thinking positive. Today I pretty much achieved target of 2000 calories which is good, but I am more pleased by the fact that while eating dinner (which was left over roast chicken in a tarragon and cream sauce and was pretty good) I realised that I had eaten enough and stopped eating.

This is possibly a first in OEM's experience.

Also, I made chocolate cornflakes for Notsosmall to take to school tomorrow for the cake sale in aid of Haiti and I didn't eat them. David had one and I had a small corner of that, but the rest are untouched, even though there is a non-standard number of them that usually I would feel justified in 'rounding down'.

Don't give up on me Dr Mom; I need to know you are suffering too!

Wednesday Weigh-In - Dr Mom

Today I weighed in at 158.2, which is 1.4 lbs heavier than last week. I am now exactly the same weight I was on January 6, which is when we started this.

Numbers decreasing (slowly)

17 07. A whole pound. On other days this week when I've sneakily weighed, it has been 1706, but not today, oh no. So let's go with 1707.

Which was an important year, after all. The Scots lords signed over their independence to Us in exchange for a mess of porridge. Mmm, porridge, there's a thought.

Off to Guildford now.

I can't compete with Dr Mom in the healthy exercise stakes; I totter from computer screen to kettle and back again at the moment. Fresh air have I none. But frankly, until 4 March is out the way, not much is going to change on that front. As long as the trips to the kitchen are for cups of tea and not crisps, cheese and cake, I figure I'm doing ok, under the circumstances.

Not too bad today: toast and Bovril for breakfast (I'm out of bananas and I can't face the floor-scrapings (muesli) without something fresh fruit-like), lunch was pumpkin and chili soup (almost no calories at all) and 30g of cheddar cheese. Snacks of 50g crisps and one 30cal water biscuit. (I need to not have the crisps and have something slightly more substantial with lunch, it seems, in order to avoid the irresistible urge to have something when Notsosmall comes home.) Dinner was meatballs and spaghetti.

I notice from this blog that our meals are getting very monotonous! But again, until I've got this wretched Business Law exam out the way I can't give my mind to new recipes...

Exercise Overdose

Yesterday I did my usual six mile walk along the Baylands, stopping halfway at the Shoreline Cafe to drink a latte (the coffee shop visit of the day) and eat a banana. Yes, get that, not cake of any description, but a piece of fruit! Have you ever heard the like?

In the afternoon I participated in the children's dance class, so I effectively did two sessions of exercise in the same day. I have to admit that my legs were protesting quite a lot by the end of the evening, which I spent snuggled up on the sofa with a book.

Foodwise it was a pretty virtous day. Weetabix breakfast, morning coffee as already noted, chicken sandwich lunch, tuna melt dinner at the Country Gourmet, and a biscuit with my evening cup of tea. Today it's 1pm, and so far all I've had is the Weetabix and a coffee at a school meeting. I'm going to risk a bagel with a bit of cheese for lunch.

Equanimity Restored

No longer irrationally grumpy.

Food-wise the day went well until dinner, which was roast chicken with large quantity of Yorkshire pudding, modest quantity of mashed potato, and quite a lot of vegetables. It was scrummy, and I don't regret a single calorie of it.

I also succeeded in getting a job application in before the closing date, so that is positive too (though it turns out that the next stage is an online verbal reasoning test and I don't have a good track record with those - time to practice required).

Today I need to learn about insolvency-avoiding strategies and whether to choose a limited liability partnership, a partnership, a sole tradership or a limited company as a preferred business medium. Be still my beating heart.